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Often people ask me about humour in presentations and how best to use it.  

Humour can be a powerful tool in public speaking but it is a bit of a double edged sword.  If it doesn’t work, the presenter falls flat on their face and often finds it difficult to recover their credibility.      

In the past I have discouraged people from telling jokes as part of their presentation for this very reason.  Instead I advise gentle, self deprecating humour to make a point. 

Recently I read a fabulous book called “Be Heard Now” by American presentation coach Lee Glickstein.   Lee dedicates a whole chapter to humour and sums the topic up nicely by explaining that there are basically three types of humour.   Laughter of the Head, Laughter of the Spleen and Laughter of the Heart.

Laughter of the Head is exemplified by those clever or witty “bon mot’s” beloved of some speakers. Whilst it can be amusing, it has a tendency to put down audiences as the speaker demonstrates just how “clever” they are.  Most “jokes” invoke laughter of the head and as such should be avoided when trying to connect and build relationships with your audience.

Laughter of the Spleen is evoked by humour at the expense of another person or group.   As a Scot, I have heard lots of jokes about mean scotsmen and, whilst some may make me smile, I cannot help but cringe a little inside.   Again this type of laughter does little to build rapport and empathy with your audience and is therefore best avoided. 

 Laughter of the Heart is evoked by humorous stories  which recognise, in a light hearted way, that we are all human and therefore prone to gaffs, blunders and embarrassing occurrences.  This is the humour of Billy Connolly, a master at observing our human foibles and turning them into hilarious anecdotes.   This type of humour is relaxing and reminds us all of our similarities rather than our differences.   Sharing such embarrassments about ourselves demonstrates our humanity and vulnerability and therefore demonstrates empathy with our audiences.

Of course, despite all this, you need to consider 1) Is humour appropriate for this topic and this audience?  and 2) Have I got the timing and delivery to pull it off?   If you stick to humour of the heart, you shouldn’t have to worry too much about the latter point.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve sat through presentations where the presenter has continually had to walk in front  of their projector to access the laptop keyboard and change their slide.   Shirts or dresses don’t make good projection screens and it gives the impression of an unprofessional and ill prepared presenter.     Another disadvantage of using the computer keyboard or mouse to change your slides is that you are forced to stay close to the keyboard, severely limiting your ability to get in amongst your audience and interact with them physically as well as verbally.

The answer is so simple it beats my whey so many people don’t use it.  Buy a wireless remote control!   There are lots of different models out there and but they all do basically the same thing.   They consist  of two parts, a receiver “dongle” that plugs into the USB port of any laptop, and a small transmitter which you hold in your hand as you present.

If you only need to advance your slides backwards and forwards I recommend the Kensington Si600 Wireless Presenter with Laser Pointer.   It has four clear and simple buttons.  Next slide, previous slide, blank screen and laser pointer.   It’s small. compact, reliable and costs less than £30 from Amazon.   I

if you need to be able to mouse over a slide to use hyperlinks etc, you’ll need a more sophisticated remote with the ability to control the onscreen cursor via a trackball, mouse-pad or gyroscopic sensor.  The cheapest one I have come across so far is the 3M Wireless Presenter Remote Mouse & Laser Pointer  and the neatest is probably the  Gyration GP916T GyroTransport Presenter

So there you have it.  If you haven’t got a remote then get one now and free yourself up to present more naturally and more effectively.

Regular readers of this blog will know that I am a keen mind mapper and recommend this powerful technique as a great way to develop presentation content and even to use as your notes.   A little while ago I reviewed freemind, a free open-source application that can be downloaded from the web.  

Well the other day I was sent a link to an an alternative product called bubbl.us

I’ve had a quick look and it’s an interesting little application with a simple and relatively intuitive interface.  To call it a mind mapping application is stretching the definition slightly as I would call it’s outputs bubble charts rather than mind maps but the basic underlying principles are the same.  

The current version doesn’t allow users to upload pictures, symbols or diagrams but you can save your “maps” and send them to others or embed them in a website or blog. See the example below.  It’s not perfect and I still prefer
mind manager but why not take a look at it yourself.

Today I had the privilege of meeting up with my great friends and inspirational speakers Richard & Liz.     We talked about all sorts of things to do with success, self development and happiness and as ever, I left with a whole load of exciting new ideas and insights.

I could write several posts on the outcomes of this meeting but I just want to share one with you today.    We were talking about the ability of effective communicators to engage and connect with their audience.   Richard has an uncanny knack of coming up with a pithy, simple statement that is just bursting with meaning.  

Richard made the statement that “perfection isn’t the same as connection” and this got me thinking.   

Many presenters and speakers waste their time trying to create the “perfect” presentation and forget that the key to effective communication is connection not perfection.  In fact perfection tends to get in the way of connection.

Liz demonstrated this with a little story about a story that she heard on a personal; development CD recently.  The “guru” was telling the story of how a lady delegate had come up to him at the end of the break and asked “How can you possibly be happy all the time,”  Surely you must get just a little depressed sometime?”   To which the guru answered “no, I never get down any more.”   The immediate effect of this apparently perfect answer was to create a barrier between the lady and the speaker.   How could she possibly connect with someone who was so perfect!   

No I don’t know about you, but I have yet to meet anyone who is really that perfect.  We all have our down times but that doesn’t make us bad people, it just makes us human.   If we are going to connect with other human beings we need to be able to be authentic and honest.

One of the best ways of achieving connection is to share some of your own “story” with your audience.   And I don’t mean just the good stuff  either.   Let’s be real and by sharing our imperfections  connect with the rest of the human race who have imperfections too.

I was presenting recently at a meeting and, as I was fourth on the agenda, I had the opportunity to watch  and listen to the presentations of the three preceding speakers.   I love to see how others present and how they use, or misuse, PowerPoint.   One of the presenters was a lawyer speaking about some complex legal matter which was completely beyond me.  

His case wasn’t helped by the fact that his slides were full of words which he insisted on reading out to his audience but that’s not why I am writing this post.      In a vain attempt to make his otherwise verbose presentation interesting he decided to use PowerPoint’s custom animation feature to inject some dynamism into his talk.   When he clicked his remote for the first slide, the text appeared (all three sentences of it!) and spiralled in until it stopped and we were able to read it.  Ugh!   

Somehow I just knew that this was just the start and sure enough, the text in his next slide bounced in! Aaarg!  Why do people think that animations like this add anything to a presentation.  Just because the geeks at Microsoft build it into the programme doesn’t mean to say that you have to use it!    

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t use animations, I’m saying just use them sparingly and please use only the ones that help your message.  If you are using them to control the appearance of text on a slide I recommend that you use the “wipe” option and select the “from the left” option.   The reason for this is a simple but important one.  Most westerners, when they read, scan from left to right.   If your animations mimic this natural pattern then they will work better.    

Together we can make presentations more effective!

Even the most experienced managers can be paralysed by nerves.    I see it almost every time I run a course and I know that, with the help and support of a good coach and fellow students this  fear can be overcome.  There are lots of techniques to help including;

• Deep breathing
• Visualisation
• Holding a little saliva in your mouth
• Acting as if…

The problem is that most of these only provide symptomatic relief.     In order to get to the root of the problem once and for all we have to explore what causes the fear to build and grow.    I notice that all nervous presenters have at least one thing in common (apart form their fear that is!).    They all can vividly describe the symptoms of their fear and how it develops.   For some it’s flushing spreading up from the chest to the face, for others it’s a dry mouth and so on.   Interestingly I and the other observers can see little or no outward signs of these apparently huge and uncontrollable symptoms.

I believe that this ability to describe the symptoms that are almost always invisible to the audience holds the key to the problem.   In order to be able to give these vivid descriptions, the sufferer must be paying exquisite attention to their own internal feelings and physiology.  And of course, the more we pay attention to something, the bigger and scarier it seems to get.    I’m sure you can remember being awoken in the night by a strange noise in your house.   The more you listen for it, the more your mind paints a picture of scary burglars armed to the teeth and determined to hurt yo and your loved ones.  Of curse, if you do manage to pluck up the courage to get up and investigate, you inevitably discover that it was just a creaky pipe or an open window banging.  Energy flows where attention goes. 

So, if that’s the problem, what is the solution?

You have probably worked it out for yourself already.  You need to start paying exquisite attention to something else, and, in the case of a presentation, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that the audience is the place to go.   When you start paying attention to them, you stop paying attention to yourself and the nerves start to dissipate.

Every time I run a presentation skills workshop I get asked questions like;

• What is the “right” way to present?
• Should I use humour?
• Should I move or stand still?

My answer is always the same. “It depends!”

This is because I believe that there is no one right style.  What is much more important is that the presenter comes across as authentic.     If you try to be something you are not rarely works.

Interestingly though, this advice is not a “get out of jail free” card for nervous or reluctant presenters.    Nervousness is not your natural or authentic self, it is a learned response that is ultimately limiting and can be unlearned.

Being authentic actually means opening up to your audience and revealing some of the facets of your personality that you may have previously learned to keep hidden.   Your emotions, your passions, your sense of humour, your vulnerability.

The bad news is that you have to be prepared to take a small but real risk. 

The good news is that the rewards are massive!    

Being authentic has huge payoffs in terms of your ability to inspire and influence others and, perhaps even more importantly is helps dissolve much of the internal tension and stress that we create for ourselves when we try to be someone or something we are not.   

Do yourself and your audiences a big favour - bring more of your true, authentic self to everything that you do.  Remember, life is not a rehearsal!